Monthly Archive:: December 2006

HP Battens Down HP-UX

Unix No Comments
"HP this week moved to bulk up the security tools available with its HP-UX operating system. The company has released an assortment of additions for HP-UX 11i V2 - including server-side encryption, a security chip and fortified data containers - that give customers some nice, high-end options. HP officials bragged that a number of the new tools arrive at no additional cost to customers. In addition, HP insisted that we remind you of its 'commitment to the long-term success of the HP-UX roadmap'."
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2006: The Year that Changed Linux

  Submitted by anonymous Linux 115 Comments
"I've been saying for years that Linux was well along on its way from being the tech fanboy operating system of choice, to becoming one of big business' favorite operating systems. Well, I was right all along, but in 2006, that progress smacked many Linux fans in the face. This is my list of the five most significant changes in Linux this year. They are not changes, however, that many who have embraced Linux in the past will appreciate. Like it or lump it, these are the changes that I also think clearly predict Linux's future in the mainstream."
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Setting up a PXE Install Server

  Submitted by falko Ubuntu 11 Comments
"This tutorial shows how to set up a PXE install server with Ubuntu 6.10. A PXE install server allows your client computers to boot and install a Linux distribution over the network, without the need of burning Linux iso images onto a CD/DVD, boot floppy images, etc. In this article I show how to configure a PXE server that allows you to boot multiple distributions: Ubuntu Edgy/Dapper, Debian Etch/Sarge, Fedora Core 6, CentOS 4.4, OpenSuSE 10.2, and Mandriva 2007."
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Hubert Mantel Back at Novell

  Submitted by Billamon Novell and Ximian 11 Comments
"I had more than 1 year of time to think about my future and came to the conclusion that the thing I'm most interested in still is Linux." During an exclusive interview to Data Manager Online and pc-facile, SuSe co-founder confirms, after he left one year ago, he's back at Novell since early December.
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Should Javascript Get More Respect?

  Submitted by anonymous General Development 31 Comments
JavaScript is often ridiculed as the black sheep of programming languages. Nearly every Web developer has cursed JavaScript at one time or another. Until recently, many developers had all but written off JavaScript as a necessary evil at best or a toy at worst. But JavaScript is becoming increasingly important. See why it remains the most broadly available scripting language for Web development and a better choice for developing modern applications.
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Are We Being Served?

Editorial 77 Comments
Web 2.0 throws a lot of buzzwords at us. New technology has given us new terms to describe a particular design process. One of these is "user-centric" design. An example of a website that isn't user-centric would be microsoft.com. A static site where the users have no control over the content of the site, nor any choice in what they see. The company displays the information they deem important. This is considered web 1.0. (Note by AS: a new microsoft.com site has gone live since this submission). YouTube and Digg are examples of Web 2.0, user-centric sites whereby the users of the site contribute not only the content that the other users consume, but each user helps decide what content is promoted. Today, I'm going to coin a new term: self-centric design. To define this new term, I will compare OSNews to one of the leading web 2.0 sites: Digg.
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Interactive 3D Controls on the Windows Presentation Foundation

  Submitted by PlatformAgnostic .NET 20 Comments
Thanks to the efforts of Kurt Berglund, a new hire on the Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly "Avalon") team, there is now a library that allows standard WPF controls (like buttons, text boxes, lists) to be used interactively on 3D objects. This is not a native feature of the 1.0 version of the framework--such items could be displayed, but were non-interactive. See this channel9 video or this blog post for details on how this (dare I say) clever hack works. Source code is also available.
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Features vs. Freedom

Open Source 108 Comments
"Recently there has been a lot of discussion bubbling up regarding the possibility that Ubuntu will ship proprietary 3D drivers by default for some video cards. My aim here is not to discuss the specifics of that decision, which is still being fleshed out and ratified, but to instead define my views on the bigger picture behind the discussion - features vs. freedom."
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Why User Interface Actions Occur on Release, Not on Press

Graphics 21 Comments
"If you pay close attention, you'll notice that most user interface actions tend to occur on the release, not on the press. When you click on a button, the action occurs when the mouse button is released. When you press the Windows key, the Start menu pops up when you release it. When you tap the Alt key, the menu becomes active when you release it (there are exceptions to this general principle, of course, typing being the most notable one). Why do most actions wait for the release?"
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How Microsoft Fights off 100000 Attacks Per Month

  Submitted by jayson.knight Microsoft 19 Comments
Microsoft has long encouraged its employees to 'RAS' into the corporate network from home or from the road to access e-mail, shared files and applications. RAS, short for Remote Access Services, is an old Microsoft term for what most people now call a client VPN. Microsoft, of course, maintains valuable intellectual property on its internal network, including the source code to all its operating systems and applications. These are constant targets for hackers, and Microsoft tries to protect its most valuable assets with defenses in depth; they are behind firewalls and on networks segmented with IPsec. In addition, the entire network is monitored for suspicious activity, scanned for malware and so on.
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Disgruntled Debian Developers Delay Etch?

Debian 71 Comments
Debian GNU/Linux 4.0, codenamed Etch, had been due to arrive by December 4, 2006, but it's been delayed because some developers have 'deliberately' slowed down their work. According to a blog note by Andreas Barth, Debian developer & release manager, the delay has resulted because "Some people who used to do good work reduced their involvement drastically. There was nothing I could do about, and that happened way before I started full-time on release, but on the global picture that still counts."
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e16-0.16.8.5 Released

Desktop environments 30 Comments
The Enlightenment team has released version e16-0.16.8.5 of its window manager for the X windowing system. "Add Xft font support; add _NET_WM_SYNC_REQUEST support; enable setting focused/non-focused opacity independently (Grant Weir); enable window matches on override-redirect windows (for compositing options); by default set opaque and fading off on xscreensaver window; various minor bug fixes and enhancements."
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Visopsys 0.65 Released

  Submitted by andymc OS News 6 Comments
Version 0.65 of the Visopsys operating system was released today. A lot of work has been done on the USB subsystem and underlying UHCI driver - though it's still not 'there' yet it has been re-enabled for the time being. New features were added to the Disk Manager (a.k.a. Partition Logic) including partition copy/paste (same disk or disk-to-disk). And finally, as with the last few releases there's been a focus on improving the GUI code. You can demo Visopsys on a floppy or live CD. Downloads and change log.
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Opera 9.10 Released

  Submitted by abdavidson Opera 29 Comments
Opera 9.10 has been released with the big new thing being protection against phishing. "Opera Software today introduced real-time Fraud Protection in its Web browser. Fraud Protection includes technology from GeoTrust and PhishTank, a collaborative clearing house for data and information about phishing on the Internet. Fraud Protection is available in Opera 9.1, the newest version of Opera's Web browser."
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Microsoft Turns up the Heat on Windows 2000 Users

  Submitted by Flatline Microsoft 51 Comments
With the recent release of Microsoft's newest potential cash cows, Windows Vista and Office 2007, the company is expecting a wave of upgrades from users seeking the latest functionality. But what if you're not looking for new bells and whistles? What if you want to keep your old operating systems, such as Windows 2000, running as long as possible? Microsoft isn't making it easy for you.
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ArchLinux Gets User-Friendly Installer

  Submitted by anonymous Linux 14 Comments
If you are like me an want to try ArchLinux, but were discouraged by its awkward installation program and the complex task to convert the base system into a usable desktop, here is a new option for you: Arch Linux Office Install CD: "This CD installs a complete setup of Arch Linux distribution. No 'configure' is needed except to prepare hard disk, set mount points, and install the LILO boot loader. Also no post configure. Once installed, you can start working with popular Linux programs for office, Internet, and web development. If you are new to Linux, this installer is a good starting place to begin." It comes with Linux 2.6.18.3, X.Org 7.0, KDE 3.5.5, and the usual open source software applications.
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In Pursuit of Java Code Quality

  Submitted by anonymous Java 4 Comments
Performance testing is usually left for last in the application development cycle - not because it's unimportant, but because it's hard to test effectively with so many unknown variables. In this month's In pursuit of code quality, Andrew Glover makes a case for performance testing as part of the development cycle and shows you two easy ways to do it.
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